Scare Me, the first feature film written and directed by Josh Ruben, joins the ever-growing list of strong Shudder original releases for 2020. Scare Me follows Fred (Josh Ruben), a down-on-his-luck ad writer as he retreats to a mountain cabin in search of bringing some life to his story-writing. While out on a run, he comes across professional horror novelist Fanny (Aya Cash – The Boys). Later that night, a storm knocks out the power, and Fanny comes to Fred’s cabin in search of something to break her boredom. They settle on telling scary stories over the fire, which turn the night into something a little more frightening than either of them expected.
The first thing that needs to be said about Scare Me is that if you’re looking for your classic multi-segment horror anthology, this is not the film for you. This film is so unique. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it, and for that reason alone, it has my attention and appreciation. Scare Me’s stories are just that. Stories. Each of the two main characters take turns telling actual campfire stories of their creations, while the other workshops them, adjusting details throughout the storytelling. The delivery of the “segment” is completely on the shoulders of the actors, which is a bold move, and paid off wonderfully. It’s difficult enough to write and direct a film, but to hold yourself accountable as the lead actor and still do a phenomenal job is just something else. So many kudos to Josh Ruben for this. Aya Cash is incredible as well. She has such a natural presence in her acting style that is so conversational and legitimate. After seeing her in The Boys and in this, I am super excited to see where her career is going. Chris Redd (Popstar, Joker) and Rebecca Drysdale (Key & Peele) are fun additions to the small cast as well.
I think the most masterful thing about Scare Me aside from its uniqueness is the sound design. With each story told, horror sound effects are used to amplify intense moments. For example, werewolf snarls, screams, the sounds of bones crunching and flesh lacerating. It made everything feel real, and totally immerses the audience in the story being told. I turned on the surround sound and got goosebumps every time there was a creak or thump. I loved it. Visuals were used sparingly, which I found was my only issue with the film. I get that we weren’t being sent off into different segments of the anthology, but some visuals were used to tell the story. A werewolf hand here, some glowing eyes there. It’s not that I don’t think this wasn’t the way to do it, but because this was such a perfect way of doing it, I wanted more!
As the film starts winding down, there’s a sudden horror sub-genre flip that we’d all kind of been waiting for. It hit me with all sorts of vibes from Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon with a little bit of The Shining peppered in there. The switch was cold, intense and quite frightening. It was an extremely well-done way to end the film, but again, I felt like we needed a little more. More intensity, more realness, more time. I need to be clear that these are extremely small knocks on the film. They don’t make me appreciate the film any less. The film intentionally sends the audience red flags in the characters’ interactions, and I found myself saying “Nope, this is a bad idea.” more and more as the film progressed. I feel like there was a moral here about not doing drugs with people you don’t know…or maybe not doing drugs in a horror movie? Either way, the audience gets a taste of all the great things we love about isolation horror films.
To me, this is another home run from Shudder. Unfortunately, I don’t think this film is for everyone. There are a lot of different kinds of horror fans, and this just may not appeal to those that want their old-fashioned extra cheese pizza horror anthology, and that’s fine. That is the beauty of media being subjective to our tastes. For those looking for something unique, something masterfully crafted for a specific taste, a veggie pizza with grilled eggplant and mushrooms, for instance, this film is definitely for you.
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